The Theft and The Attempted Rape: Two Tails of the same Head
By Adebayo Miracle
Great Bello released a public statement after being paraded by the security committee for theft where he denied the allegations levelled against him.
He also went further to accuse the security council and Chairman electoral commission in charge of cooking up the story and staging the happenings of 1st of August, the day he was accused of theft and publicly paraded after witnesses said he accepted the charges claiming it was the devil’s handwork.
An urgent press meeting was called by the Chairman of the Great Ife Students' Union Electoral Commission, Mr Ajayi Oluwafemi on August 4, 2021 to address the issue and provide witnesses for clarification before the Association of Campus Journalists and its press members.
Witnesses were brought forward to narrate how the incident happened on the day of his arrest and how he plead guilty to the accusations after several unsuccessful attempts of trying to proof his innocence with different lies.
During the course of the conference, it was discovered that this same Mr Bello who used to be a member of the Great Ife Students' Union was once the registrar during the 2015/2016 administration before the union was suspended.
It was also discovered he had use unreal names on different occasions in the course of relating with people.
He was also said to have claimed to be from Osun state for years while further investigation revealed he is from Kwara state. Victims and witnesses to the theft case were questioned on how they were able to identify their properties.
From the reports gathered, most of them confirmed that their properties were custom-made properties that would otherwise not be available to other people. Items like fan, boxer, slides, shorts, mattress, and clothes were listed.
As part of further narration given by the Students' Union Electoral Commission with the collaboration of the Security Committee, it was revealed that Mr Bello contacted a certain person called "Toronto" in a bid to sell gas cylinder with the bargain around 2,000 and 5,000.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission confirmed meeting Toronto to ask, to which Toronto affirmed the sale meeting with Mr Bello which wasn't successful.
After recording the witnesses and victims' reports on the theft case, the Electoral Commission and the Security Committee now collaborating informed the press of another case which the same Mr Bello was involved in.
He was said to have also committed an attempted rape on July 21 2021 with a CDL student in the awolowo hall of residence.
Below is the report surrounding the narration.
Mr Bello had met the lady in a freshers' party held on campus where he announced his intention to be in a relationship with her. The lady said she told him she would think about it and they set a meeting over WhatsApp to meet in Mr Bello's hostel.
It was reported that he sneaked the female student in with the aid of his friend popularly known as "ISE" giving the porters an impression of them leading the student to the café in the hall. After several unsuccessful attempts to cajole the lady to sleep with him, he retired to using force on the lady which he, according the lady was able to undress her. He went ahead and get this lady’s ATM card and pin after telling the girl he wanted to use her card to make a withdrawal.
The victim narrated that she was naked when Mr Bello left the room as her clothes were locked in wardrobe and the room itself was locked on the outside.
However, she was able to find the key to unlock the wardrobe, got her clothes, and dressed herself. When he came him, he pleaded with her, informed her he wasn't able to withdraw, and announced he wanted to get a protection (condom) as that may make the lady accept his advances.
The lady informed the press that she told him he never sent any money into her account so he didn't have to withdraw. Mr Bello then advised the lady to stay the night in Awolowo hall as it was already getting late.
The lady accepted but said she and Mr Bello agreed it was only for fear of going back to school in the night.
Things didn't go as planned as Mr Bello made his advances again and this time, the lady said she found a way to escape and was on the run to the exit of the hall when Mr Bello moved after her.
In the premises of the hall, Mr Bello caught up and tried to stop her.
She said she didn't know what to do as students were only minding their business so she had to save herself. She was able to escape and left on a bike to campus gate.
“Immediately I got to campus gate I saw a debit alert of #4,000 made by him. I called him immediately I got home to demand an explanation behind his action. He then told me that I have to pay for stress I gave him while he was trying to have sex with me”, she informed the press members as she presented the evidence of her claim which was her chat with the Mr Bello who made her believe he is Richard by name.
All her chats with Mr Bello who introduced himself to her as Richard have been submitted to the Association of Campus Journalists. The chats also reveal their conversations relating to sex, defrauding her of the 4,000, and intent of vengeance.
While all indications were pointing to one direction, it would be necessary to hear the other side of the story so this report was delayed until Mr Bello gave his own account.
The Association of Campus Journalists was unable to reach Mr Bello on that day to narrate his own account.
When Mr Bello finally responded, he gave his own account of the story.
“I was coarsed, I was manipulated in front of people, I was mobbed by a large crowd. You saw the video evidences? So can you be beaten to that extent and not succumb to the crowd?"
“For every of the stolen item asked if I stole them or not, I was beaten for every time I said no and when I say yes, they move to the next item”; these were his statement insisting he was forced to accept the crimes painted against him.
He also added that his freedom of expression was denied during all this period of trials and he further throw out the question of “why is it only part one students involved in the matter? Is awolowo hall of residence a part 1 hostel?”
In the narration of the witnesses, they confirmed he wasn't beaten in Awo hall where they claim he agreed to all allegations.
The beating only came in SUB during moderation. The video evidence are in the quarters of the Association of Campus Journalists.
Directing him back to the issue of rape levied against him, he did not deny neither did he accept the accusation. He instead insisted that it was a way of tarnishing his image and name, a many stories of rape has been cooked up and used to threatening him.
A further interrogation with Mr Bello in the process of trying to get the exact truth out of him proof abortive, as he claim to be busy at the moment and promised to call back which he never did.
To keep the record clean and the fact clear enough, a call was placed again to Mr Bello by one of our correspondent to follow up the investigation. He insisted on the fact that he was forced to accept the crime.
On a further enquiry from our correspondent requesting him to explain how then he was in possession of the boxers and shorts they accused him of stealing.
“I said you would hear from me just like I wrote yesterday to get a proper details, I will call you back."
He called one of ACJ's correspondents in the late hours of August 5,2021 where he informed he has just concluded an interview with a news agency.
His narration was later retrieved and the report is lettered below.
“I woke up on Sunday morning and stepped out of my room, and I saw two students, one of them attacked me and was even dragging the boxers on me, I was surprised and asked the reason for the commotion, he said this boxers belong to him and he has been looking for it for quite sometime now so where did I get the boxer from. I said this is a boxer that belongs to me.
He further asked me where I got it from and I ignored him and went my way as I replied him with "are you a joker?" He also went his way and later came back shouting and raising alarm trying to get attention from afar, I did not answer him.
He came back and banged the door on me shouting some things were missing two weeks ago, he mentioned those items and I was the one that stole it, he mentioned those items and I was like what is the meaning of all of this, then the crowd was getting much and I was still on that same boxers, then the crowd accused me saying
"you self talk nah where you get boxers from?", then the guy who accused me was going about making calls, then he came back inside the room and ask me how many boxers do I have with me, that I should just confess and he his not going to cast me, and I should just admit that I was the one that stole it and he his not going to escalate it.
From there I was like five years on this campus and I was never accused of this before."
Everybody was getting aroused and before I knew what was happening, my door was forced open, the porter came and intervened and they told him "this guy he stole this he stole that." They search through my box and brought out the items and boxer as evidence, I told him this were my roommate's own, then he said give me a number and I was like just let my roommate come and interrogate him also, he knows what I wear cause actually my phone was off and I was charging it. I have two roommates. He later collected the number and said the number is not going, the porter came and collected my ID card, got my details but they later pushed the man out and he insisted that I was going to be paraded, he prevented people from coming inside and he kept trying to convince me saying I should admit I stole these things and he is not going to drag the issue.
Before I know it, the electoral chairman has been called but before then he has carried me up telling me I should postrate, giving me all sort of combat that I should postrate, he even wounded a guy in that process, the one that challenged him what his evidence for the allegation was.
When the chairman came, he said “you are already taking justice on the person, he further asked reason for his punishment now that he has hit the guy with a plank that has nail on the leg”, then his friends came out that he doesn’t know oo that the guy was defending me.
Then I told the chairman that I can’t work down to SUG like this just on boxers alone without slippers, so the image of a thief is already thrown out already, when we left other people went into my room and start bringing out different items like bulb, socket, and fan, ankara claiming they are all some other persons' own.
So that was more like okay so that guy came in the morning and these other ones came to compound issues again”
On further enquiry on if he is saying that he is the owner of the bed and fan, he said the bed was given to him by a postgraduate student and the bed was new and you now how things go within awolowo hall, the way things use to be passed from graduating students to other students.
He also went ahead to narrate how his whole cupboard with important stuffs went missing during his part 1 days and he never accused anybody of theft. He pressed on that life in hostel is not lived by accusing someone of stealing objects that are not of economical value.
He said he was taken to SUB twice first on the account of parading him for theft and then the second on the account that they are acting on directives claiming they intend to lock him up but due to the presence of his friends, it was not successful, which later leads to the chairman of the electoral comitte of SUG inviting him to his office one on one for more than 30 minutes with both pouring out their minds on the issue.
“The chairman even bought correct food for me afterwards ooo, am I not a thief, am I supposed to be taken care of?”, he charged.
He also mentioned the act that there are other serious thefts which have taken place and the suspects were not paraded and informing the press was just to defame his personality and render him powerless politically for their (SU and its members) own personal reasons and benefits.
Concerning the rape case which was brought up during the interrogation by those in charge of the case, he did not deny the fact that he cajoled her to try having sex with her and he also said he informed her that he might not be able to control himself if she was staying overnight and she still agreed to that.
"But as time went on, after I tried persuading her, she decided to leave for her house and I freed her to go.
It was later I got a call from the Students' Union Electoral Commission/Security Committee accusing me of rape." He said he was locked up since wednessday and was released on Thursday after several interrogations without concrete evidence except trying to establish why he would withdraw 4k from her account without her consent.
He claimed that the girl was push to say it was attempted rape and afterwards he was asked to appologise and return the money, with everything settled amicably from the both parties.
At the end of his narration, he asked; which is more severe, a rape case or a theft case of stealing boxers and matress?”
Investigations are still going on, trying to establish facts as given. More revelations might be coming up soon. The reports on the allegations are backed up by living witnesses, victims' reports, and documentary evidence.
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